JOHN BOUTTE & UPTOWN OKRA
French Quarter Festival, New Orleans, LA
Hibernia Pavilion Stage
April 12, 2002

Source: WWOZ 90.7 FM > Sony TCD-D7 DAT (32.1 kHz) > Martantz CDR510 > CDR(1) > EAC (secure mode) > FLAC

Taped and transferred by mrpember

01- Everything Will Be Just Fine (fades in)
02- City of New Orleans [Arlo Guthrie]
03- Didn't It Rain [traditional]
04- Southern Man [Neil Young]
05- Folsom Prison Blues [Johnny Cash]
06- Coo-Coo Over You [The Hueys, written by Bradon / Smith]
07- I Can See Clearly Now [Johnny Nash]
08- Rolling in the Streets [Nick Backer]
09- No Hiding Place Down Here [Carter Family]
10- I Got Loaded [Little Bob & the Lollipops, written by Camile Bob]
11- Blue Moon of Kentucky [Bill Monroe]
12- Let's Make a Better World [Earl King]
13- Sisters [John Boutte & Paul Sanchez]
14- Crying Holy Unto the Lord [Flatt & Scruggs, etc.]
15- Down in the Treme [John Boutte]

encore (from a later rebroadcast)
16- Alright, Okay, You Win [Count Basie Orchestra, Peggy Lee, written by Mayme Watts & Sid Wyche)


LINEUP:

John Boutte: vocals
Brian Siegel: guitar, backing vocals
Nick Backer: mandolin, backing vocals
Matt Rhody: fiddle
Matt Perrine: bass
Johnny Vidacovich: drums


I was inspired to share this by all the great WWOZ recordings captured and posted by nolataper, and by listening to the current set of "Festing in Place" shows that the station has been broadcasting.

This is John Boutte, one of the truly great voices of New Orleans, playing a loose and very joyful set with Uptown Okra with whom he released a CD in 1999. The story I heard about this collaboration was that John got a great offer for a festival gig somewhere in South or Central America...but the problem was that it was a bluegrass festival and John is a jazz singer. So he found some local bluegrass guys and they worked up a set and did the show, it went well so they continued to work together on occasion. (That story may not be true, if it is not please don't tell me as I really like the story.)

We lived in the French Quarter in the spring of 2002, I was a very big John Boutte fan but I didn't know about Uptown Okra at the time. I set up my DAT to record this broadcast, walked down to the Mississippi River and was able to get a beer and a place near the front a few songs in (this was back when the French Quarter Fest was very mellow and mainly locals). The show floored me, a truly inspired collaboration with a world class jazz and r & b singer stretching out for a set full of bluegrass, country, gospel, pop, classic rock and classic r & b. The Uptown Okra guys were rounded out by Frenchmen St stalwart Matt Rhody on fiddle, Matt Perrine on bass (an excellent bass player but an even better tuba player), and the legendary Johnny Vidacovich on drums. In classic New Orleans fashion it sounds like the band is mostly unrehearsed and there are some blown intros and lyrics but the joy just jumps out of this performance. Despite John's complaints about a buzz in his monitors (he ALWAYS has complaints about the sound) he is in a great mood, playing for a crowd that includes his mother, a couple of his sisters, and a bunch of friends. All this on the Pavilion stage with a backdrop of the River with tug boats and huge freighters going by on a gorgeous Friday afternoon. This was a very good day.

The recording is very good but not perfect, there is some hum and background noise. I don't know what type of antennae I was using at the time but it was nothing special (at the time I wasn't thinking about sharing this with strangers in 18 years...). The main show is from the April 12 live broadcast, it was rebroadcast the next day and I caught the final encore that was not included in the original broadcast. I burned this to CD and it has been in heavy rotation in our house every since.

Samples in the comments, including a bit of his slowburn, intense version of Neil Young's "Southern Man."

mrpember, September 2020